Pinterest today introduces a new section on its mobile app that will aggregate Buyable Pins, allowing users to more easily find items that they can buy directly through Pinterest.
The Pinterest Shop will feature “on-trend” collections of Buyable Pins and retailer shops, as selected by those at Pinterest. Buyable Pins allow users to buy directly in a Pin without being redirected to a retailer’s Web site. They are also discoverable through the home feed, category feeds, search results, recommendations and boards, and are signified with a blue price tag.
Also unveiled today, Pinterest will begin expanding Buyable Pins to Android users in the U.S.
Since starting in June with 30 million Buyable Pins on its mobile iOS app for retailers like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Macy’s, Pinterest has since doubled that number to 60 million by opening up Buyable Pins to merchants that use e-commerce platforms Bigcommerce, Magento and IBM Commerce. With today’s news, it’s hoping to further expand its reach as a mobile shopping destination.
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According to estimates from Forrester Research Inc., mobile commerce, meaning browsing and shopping on a smartphone or tablet, is expected to grow from $115 billion in 2015 to $252 billion by 2020. Research also suggests that most of smartphone users’ time is spent on apps; fittingly, Buyable Pins are currently only available on mobile devices.
Pinterest is not alone in its move toward capturing the mobile shopper. On Nov. 5, Apple will debut a new “shopping” category in the app store. And after testing a “buy” button starting in June, Facebook shared that it would begin testing a “shopping” bookmark that will include a range of products for sale on the platform. Instagram has debuted a “shop now” button for advertisers, and Twitter created a “buy” button in September. Google, in July, created “Purchases on Google” from mobile search ads, and has recently expanded the option to buy directly from YouTube videos.
Pinterest does not currently take a percentage of the sales made through Buyable Pins, but in the future plans to monetize the function by allowing merchants to pay to promote their Buyable Pins through advertising. According to findings shared by Pinterest, Shopify merchants using Buyable Pins found that conversion rates were two times higher than other mobile Pins.
To start, Pinterest focused Buyable Pins on apparel and home decor, and so far, it seems that apparel is the leading category. In 2015, the top Buyable Pins trends were leather leggings, blanket scarves, graphic shirts, anoraks, brown boots, heritage backpacks, novelty gifts, wine-colored accessories, cat-eye sunglasses and delicate necklaces.